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|ReleaseDate=January 26, 2010
|ReleaseDate=January 26, 2010
|Year=2010
|Year=2010
|RecordingDate=
|RecordingDate=August 2009
|Studio=
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== Personnel ==
== Personnel ==


=== The Red Krayola ===
=== Performers ===


* [[Gina Birch]] - vocals, bass
* [[Gina Birch]] - vocals, bass
* Alex Dower - drums, percussion, backing vocals
* Alex Dower - drums, percussion, sound effects
* [[Jim O'Rourke]] - bass
* [[Jim O'Rourke]] - bass "[[Portrait of John Wayne|John Wayne]]" first verse
* Q - saxophones, trumpets, instrumental and sound effects
* Tom Rogerson - piano
* Tom Rogerson - piano
* [[Mayo Thompson]] - vocals, guitar piano
* [[Mayo Thompson]] - vocals, guitars, piano
* [[Tom Watson]] - guitar
* [[Tom Watson]] - guitars


=== Additional musicians ===
=== Chorus vocals ===


* Dan Cox - backing vocals
* Dan Cox
* Matt Ingram - backing vocals
* Alex Dower
* Fred Somsen - backing vocals
* Matt Ingram
* Q
* Fred Somsen


=== Technical ===
=== Technical ===

Revision as of 15:13, 6 August 2023

Five American Portraits
Studio album by The Red Krayola with Art & Language
Released January 26, 2010
Recorded August 2009
Studio


Label Drag City
/

Track listing

Side B
No.TitleLength
1."Portrait of John Wayne"15:05
2."Portrait of Ad Reinhardt"5:49
Total length:44:12

Background

Mayo Thompson, 2010[1]

Those are all people chosen by Art & Language, and they generated those texts for paintings that they were making, for works that they were making. And we’ve done so many things over the years together they thought perhaps I might like to try to put it to music. They sent it to me and I did want to do it. And so that’s the way it happened. But they made the selections.

Related works by Art & Language

Personnel

Performers

Chorus vocals

  • Dan Cox
  • Alex Dower
  • Matt Ingram
  • Q
  • Fred Somsen

Technical

  • Dan Cox - engineering
  • Matt Ingram - engineering
  • Mayo Thompson - mixing
  • Butchy Fuego - mixing
  • Rian Murphy - mixing

Retrospectives

Mayo Thompson, 2023[5]

Five American Portraits is a rehash of American cliches from dixie to "The Eyes of Texas are Upon You". Also Mozart, on the Ad Reinhardt tune, that's Mozart's piano concerto.

The fellows in Art & Language, Mel [Ramsden] and Michael [Baldwin], wrote those lyrics. They're descriptions of paintings that they were making — which was, rather than "he's a this kind of that kind of guy," it talked about where the hair went. And they even wrote me one for Trump, which I didn't want — I will not publicize that... freak — but it had a beautiful first line, like, "a shock of piss-colored hair."

Butchy Fuego, 2011[6]

I had been a fan of Mayo Thompson's prolific output for years, and had the opportunity to assist Mayo & Drag City on a previous project which I'm not at liberty to discuss due to a non-disclosure agreement. What I can say about it is that it involved time travel, another legendary avant-guardian and an agent of "the company" assisting my efforts. Mixing Five American Portraits at my studio Top Cat International was a joy and a breeze. DC mogul Rian Murphy was in the house simultaneously cracking the whip and jokes. Mayo was in rare form executing his laser-like vision over the session. The combination of The Raincoats' Gina Birch and the ever-confounding aural collaborations of The Red Krayola with Art & Language proves to be a potent combination. DON'T MESS WITH MAYO.

Reviews

Prefix

January 12, 2010[7]

Mike Wood

Dusted

January 20, 2010[8]

Jon Dale

Pitchfork

January 25, 2010[9]

Andrew Gaerig

PopMatters

January 25, 2010[10]

Richard Elliott

Philadelphia Inquirer

January 31, 2010[11][12]

A.D. Amorosi

AllMusic

Thom Jurek[13]

Uncut

March, 2010[14]

OutsideLeft

April, 2010[15]

Alex V. Cook

References